Intense Back Pain or Shoulder Pain during Pregnancy Could be Gallbladder Problems

When you’re pregnant you’ve got enough going on, all sorts
of changes going on both with your body and everyday life. There’s a lot of stress to continue everyday
operations and those operations get harder and more labor intensive. Not to mention that you’re never sure if what
you’re experiencing is normal or if you’ve got a problem. So it sucks when you get a sudden intense
back pain and/or shoulder pain and you don’t know what’s causing it. During pregnancy, the gallbladder is more
likely to act up and cause intense pain in several regions including the back,
shoulder and abdomen. But how can you tell
if it’s gallbladder pain?

The gallbladder is a small non-vital organ that stores bile
that your liver produces. This bile is
meant to aid in food breakdown.
Sometimes calcified stones, aka gallstones, are created due to various
reasons (which can include diet and cholesterol). The gallbladder can have numerous gallstones
in it without any problems, however they can sometimes block the exit (the bile
duct) and it’s then that you can experience intense back pain; so intense it
can make you feel like you can’t breathe.

So how can you tell if your pregnancy back pain is due to your gallbladder?

While you’re pregnant, back pain is constant. There are various levels of pregnancy related
back pain and it’s hard to tell if the pain is related to your
gallbladder. There are a few signs to
see if your gallbladder is causing your back or shoulder pain. One sign that is a good indicator is that
you’ll experience this pain after you eat.
When you eat your gallbladder gets signs to start releasing bile and if
the bile duct is blocked it will cause the pain. There are certain spicy foods that tend to
trigger these pains. If you get back or
shoulder pain after eating Italian or Mexican food, it could be that the
gallbladder caused it. Usually if your
pain is caused by food, whether the type of food you eat or what time of the
day you eat (usually at night), you’ll learn to feel the pain coming. If this is the case you’ll need to stop
eating to stop the bile producing mechanism.
Another sign that you may have gallstones is that you experience intense
burning pain when you lie down. This is
because the stones will shift when you lie down and this creates the potential
to clog up the bile duct and start the pain mechanism. This type of pain can sometimes be confused
with heart burn but if you sit up or walk around and the pain isn’t just in
your esophagus it’s probably due to your gallbladder. This situation usually occurs when you lie
down on your side, which is difficult because when you’re pregnant you’re
supposed to lie on your side.

If this sounds like what you’re experiencing there are a
number of solution to gallbladder pain.
There are many resources online that can help you get rid of gallstones
naturally. However, not all problems can
be fixed this way and you may need to have your gallbladder removed (it’s okay)
either during or preferably after pregnancy.
You may want to look around online at other gallstone treatment
options. If this pain continues make
sure to see a doctor. Doing a little bit
of research before going to the doctors can make a big difference in treating
gallbladder problems when you’re pregnant.

1000Ways on HubPagesHi! My name is Reed. I love to learn about stuff...all kinds of stuff: alternative energy, brewing, cooking, you name it. I also love share my...